Greg Given

“A Clear Account of the Codex Simonideios:” Ideological Infrastructures of Biblical Vulnerability in the Nineteenth Century In: Philological Encounters Author: Andrew S. Jacobs Online Publication Date: 24 Feb 2026 Abstract Metadata References Metrics Abstract Soon after Constantin Tischendorf (1815–74) publicized his “discovery” of the Codex Sinaiticus, notorious manuscript broker (and forger) Konstantinos Simonides stunned elite literary circles by announcing that Simonides himself had produced this biblical codex in his youth as a gift for the Russian tsar. Simonides claimed that his “Codex Simonideios” was illicitly being passed off as an ancient biblical codex after being mutilated and disfigured. I argue that this brief but explosive debate about manuscripts, forgeries, and “find” narratives produces a biblical text liable to revision and emendation, due to new discoveries or new methods, and so vulnerable to mischievous actors manipulating the possibilities of new discoveries and methods. The iterative process of attack and defense on display in this codicological debate has remained, in various guises, from collegial disagreement to scorched earth campaigns, an ideological component of critical biblical studies.

well helloooooo

brill.com/view/journal...

!

The Lady and the Typewriter - Harvard Film Archive As women came into the workforce in the early twentieth century, the image of the working woman entered the cultural imagination. In Hollywood, she was often what Maria DiBattista has called the &ldqu...

I can't really believe the HFA let me partner with them on a film series about women and the typewriter, but here it is. Catch MEET JOHN DOE (1941) , HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940), and THE HUDSUCKER PROXY (1994) this women's history month!

harvardfilmarchive.org/programs/the...

A graphic soliciting SBL proposals for the Space, Place, & Lived Experience in Antiquity unit by March 9. 1) A panel on space, place, affect, and atmosphere. Possible treatments might be the relation of space, place, affect as they relate to spooky or haunted places; terrifying spaces and experiences of terror; disgusting spaces; ones that are associated with ecstasy; spaces associated with insanity and its experiences; etc. Proposals should include a statement of the theoretical apparatus (for example, cognitive science, Deleuzian frameworks, psychological theories, biological frameworks, etc.) deployed to discuss such dimensions; 2. Open call.

submiiiiiiit #aarsbl26 #sblaar26 #affectivespaces #ancientreligion

Title page for a Seminar: From Damascus to Drogheda, London, Oxford ... and Paris? James Ussher of Armagh and the Samaritan Pentateuch Timothy Twining The Mícheál Ó'Cléirigh Institute University College Dublin 6 March 2026

Looking forward to sharing some research from my Marie Curie postdoc at TCD tomorrow in the convivial surroundings of UCD’s Mícheál Ó Cléirigh seminar series:

www.ucd.ie/history/rese...

Do come along if you’d like to learn more about James Ussher & the Samaritan Pentateuch!

#earlymodern

It is not too late to apply for the SBL Unit "Ancient Education"
It will host three sessions: Letter-Writing and Education; Magical Texts and Education; Education and Emotion. Send us an abstract!

fair point! I guess I was chalking up total collapse of job market as a pre-pandemic phenomenon, but it’s inarguable that it got even worse.

Usually I’d point out that they set all the terms years in advance and so they’re kinda locked into the scaled but… it’s been six years!! Although arguably US turning into a rogue state in the last year and change is a bigger factor than pandemic for the viability of the meeting, imo.

We love a late-breaking deadline reprieve!

Got a project cooking dealing with provenance of MSS? Hot takes on digital editions? Literally anything remotely close to the SBL ballpark that touches on history of books, authorship, or textuality? Now you have until March 9 to get that abstract in.

What does it feel like to be able to focus on work, I wonder

We love a late-breaking deadline reprieve!

Got a project cooking dealing with provenance of MSS? Hot takes on digital editions? Literally anything remotely close to the SBL ballpark that touches on history of books, authorship, or textuality? Now you have until March 9 to get that abstract in.

the CFP for #SBL closes tonight. please check out (and share) inventing christianity’s wide-ranging call. and please come hang out with us in denver!

THERE may be ſeveral other flips (like miſlaid page 295), but are none, probably, that can mislead an Engliſh reader.

broke: proofreading until it's all perfect

woke: just adding this note to the errata slip

My musings on the extent to which the idea that Perpetua & co were executed at Carthage stems from Christian/colonial fantasies are finally out in JECS. muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

A LATE-BREAKING TT JOB.....

Assistant Professor, Near Eastern Archaeology, University of Toronto

Archaeology of the Levant (from south-central Türkiye to northwestern Saudi Arabia) during the Bronze and Iron Ages (3,000 to 500 BCE),

universityaffairs.ca/search-jobs/...

The Epistle of Christ from Heaven in an 7th/8th or 9th cent. inscription once embedded in wall in the Church of S. Maria Assunta in Piazzo (Italy). Now in the Museo diocesano of Brugnato.

The model of unpaid academic labor required good jobs with ample unstructured time.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Study of Religion (289814) | University of Bergen Job title: Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Study of Religion (289814), Employer: University of Bergen, Deadline: Friday, March 6, 2026

Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Study of Religion, University of Bergen, Norway. Specialization in Rabbinic literature 2nd – 7th century CE. NB Short deadline: 6 March. nt4ox.link/BergenPDF26

Reckless Rites

A day to reread the remarkable Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence @princetonupress.bsky.social, by Elliott Horowitz ז״ל, my late deeply-missed friend.

press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

Good thing some US colleges are closing their Religious Studies departments—definitively not “useful” at all or an area of expertise that might be relevant for understanding our present…

Deadline Wednesday!

🗣️ New color family in the JECS cover rotation!! 🗣️

Here's the recording for the book launch of our second 4T book. Hear Fabien Muller and Aaron Johnson discuss Porphyry, theology, theurgy, and more!

RACING THE CLASSICS

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS (ABD and early-career)

Racing the Classics, a Mellon-funded initiative, invites applications for its second cohort. It involves a two-week in-person Summer Institute, and an academic-year practicum over Zoom (Sept ‘26-May ‘27)

See here: www.racingtheclassics.com

"From the very moment [a venerable man turned author] took pen in hand--all the devils in hell broke out of their holes to cajole him....So that the life of a writer, whatever he might fancy ..., was not so much a state of composition, as a state of warfare"
#18thc

This obviously very stupid but is it also smart? We’ll talk to some liars after this break.

I can’t with this shit

Put it right in my veins

Screenshot of call for papers from SBL website: The Book History and Biblical Literatures unit gathers together scholars of ancient Judaism and early Christianity in a theoretical and historical conversation about the culturally contingent concepts of text, authorship, readership, publication, and materiality. We welcome proposals for three sessions for the 2026 Annual Meeting: First, a session co-organized with the Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds program unit focused on issues of provenance: Papers may address any aspects of the historical, hermeneutical, and/or ethical questions and challenges that arise from the lives of the material that we engage for our research (e.g. ritual life, excavation, trafficking, trade, collection, institutional library or museum context, display, ongoing use, etc.). While our focus will naturally be on the provenance of papyri, manuscripts, and print books, we also welcome proposals that address such issues with respect to other kinds of objects. Second, a session co-organized with the Digital Humanities program unit on digital editions: We encourage presenters to reflect on theoretical and technical issues, as well as challenges encountered in the production of any particular project. Finally, an open call session: We are interested in new work engaging with questions of Book History, broadly conceived, and are particularly hoping to highlight the work of early career researchers, junior scholars, and graduate students.

Aware that we're all awash in these posts...

Please consider proposing a paper for Book History and Biblical Literature's panels for Denver SBL! We're welcoming proposals for 3 panels: Provenance (w/ Papyrology section), Digital Editions (w/ Digital Hum section), and an open call.

Deadline March 4